Since I blog about when I don't get good customer service I will blog about when I do get good customer service.

About a week ago I noticed that my Dell Axim X30 was broken. The screen was just white and nothing I did would restore it. I know I didn't break it myself because I almost never use the device and it was just sitting on my desk for the longest time. I dreaded calling customer service because these things are a pain in the butt.

I waited and waited through all the computer menus (truly a Dilbert moment) until I was finally connected to a live operator and explained the problem. Yes the screen is broken, No I didn't do it, yes I tried rebooting it.

But surprisingly he didn't ask too many questions and said that Dell would send me a replacement and that I just had to send my broken one back in the same box. What? You mean you aren't going to make me send mine back, take a look at it, tell me what I just told you was wrong with it and then wait another month to send me a replacement? I was just floored. What was even more shocking that the replacement came THE NEXT DAY. I mean I called the place at like 3:00 p.m. that afternoon and the replacement comes by 11:00 the next morning. I put the broken one in the box and sent it on its way. No hassle whatsoever. That's how customer service should be done.

All I can say is Snaps to Dell (sorry watched Legally Blonde 2 this weekend. I don't recommend it)

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comments:

i loathe dell. remember when i tried to send back that second laptop they gave me? the one they had no record of sending me? yeah the one it took me 2 months to send back because NO ONE WHO ANSWERED THE PHONE AT DELL WOULD TAKE IT BACK.

Dell does indeed have much better customer service than their competitors. Because they need it. At some point Dell discovered that friendly phone help and reasonable response times have a greater effect on customers than quality products. Sadly, they've taken this to the logical end and abandoned quality parts. Dell has a strong practice of using bargain basement parts and refurbished parts (without telling customers). I have yet to know a single Dell laptop owner who did not see some part fail within the first year. Their cases are shoddy, the CD drives fail with stunning frequency, the trackpads wear quickly, the displays are easily damaged. Most people won't complain when a couple keys stop working or the power supply occasionally blinks out. For more serious problems Dell responds politely by replacing broken parts with other cheap parts and the customer feels good. But, personally I'd much rather a manufacturer like Sony whose customer support I know nothing about because I've never had to call.

Ryan, yes I agree with you to some degree. I did at one point have a dell laptop that was very functional, until I spilled a coke on it. That customer service experience was a nightmare though because they tried to make me pay $900 to fix it. I said forget it, ship back my broken laptop and they fixed it anyway and tried to bill me for it. I was of course furious and refused to pay and evenually they relented.

I would have course preferred the Axim to not fail at all and I was quite upset about it since I did nothing to break it. However, the customer service portion itself was surprisingly pain free and so that is why I felt I should give Dell props this time.

Canon has good customer service too, when my digital broke. But now I didn't just break it, I actually lost it Wed. night. That story's coming up later when I get a chance to write about my Thanksgiving break.